MONICA BELLUCCI is perhaps best known for her sizzling performance as Malena, the beautiful young widow who turns a small Italian village upside down in the film Malena by Giuseppe Tornatore.
Bellucci began her career as a model while studying law at the University of Perugia. In 1990 Dino Risi cast her for the Italian television series Vita Coi Figli and she made a rapid transition to entertainment. She then made her feature film debut in Francesco Laudadio’s La Riffa.
Francis Coppola gave Bellucci a small role in Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves and she went on to star in numerous Italian features. More recently, she appeared with Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman in Under Suspicion and in the French sensation Le Pacte des Loupes (Brotherhood of the Wolf). Bellucci recently starred in Gaspar Noי’s riveting Irrיversible and also appeared opposite Bruce Willis in Antoine Fuqua’s Tears of the Sun. She has completed filming The Passion for director Mel Gibson.
